The Monsters of Rookhaven, стр. 16
She swung Daisy round with all her might, Daisy flailing as she tried to stop her momentum, but it was too late for her to materialize now. She hurtled towards the mirror and fell right into it. The pendant hit the surface of the mirror, fell down the length of it, and clattered onto the floorboards.
Mirabelle could see Daisy floating on the other side of the mirror, pounding her fists against it and shouting, but she couldn’t make out the words.
And, just as quickly as it had come, Mirabelle’s anger was gone.
Daisy howled silently beneath the mirror surface.
Suddenly she was jerked left, then right by some unseen force. She scrabbled at thin air with her hands, like a swimmer fighting a riptide, and then she was whipped away backwards, dragged into the depths, until very soon she was little more than a dot in the distance.
There was stunned silence in the hall.
Until Dotty screamed.
Jem
Jem had been rooted to the spot in terror when she saw the girl get trapped in the mirror. The running in and out of walls was terrifying, as was the thought that someone could be incinerated by sunlight, but this was somehow worse. The screaming from Dotty shook her out of her paralysis, as did the sudden entrance of Enoch bursting through the door with Mr Fletcher following close behind.
‘What’s going on?’ Enoch demanded.
Dotty pointed at Mirabelle. All she could manage was ‘She . . . she . . .’ and then she burst into tears.
Enoch towered over Mirabelle. Jem could see the defiant set of her jaw as she looked up at her uncle, and some small part of her almost cheered.
‘What happened?’ said Enoch.
Mirabelle pointed at the mirror. ‘Daisy’s in there.’
Enoch looked bemused for a moment, then he strode over to the mirror and picked Daisy’s pendant up off the floor. He looked at the mirror surface and squinted.
‘How did she get in there?’ asked Enoch.
‘Muh . . . muh . . . Mirabelle threw her in when she wasn’t solid,’ Dotty wailed.
Enoch turned and looked fiercely at Mirabelle, but Mirabelle didn’t seem fazed.
‘Is this true?’ said Enoch.
Mirabelle nodded.
Enoch looked at a loss for a moment as he considered this piece of information. He turned to Mr Fletcher, who, along with Freddie, had been regarding the account of the whole episode as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Jem was amazed by their lack of surprise. For her own part she was almost dizzy with a strange mixture of terror and confusion. These people were talking about this as if it was an incident involving children bickering over toys.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Fletcher. We may have to continue our discussion at a later date.’
Mr Fletcher simply nodded. Again Jem was struck by how unfazed both he and his son seemed to be. He grunted something to Freddie, and Freddie followed him out of the door, casting a quick glance at Jem as he left. Jem noticed the way they both walked, plodding, slightly hunched, as if they both carried the same heavy weight on their shoulders.
Aunt Eliza dashed into the hallway, clutching an ornate silver hand mirror.
‘How did Daisy get into my mirror?’ she asked.
Enoch sighed and gestured for her to give it to him. He looked at it and curled a corner of his mouth up in exasperation, then turned the mirror round so that Mirabelle could see.
Daisy was shrieking silently inside the mirror as she battered at the surface of her prison with her fists.
‘She’ll be travelling through all the mirrors in the house now.’ He turned to look accusingly at Mirabelle. ‘You know how dangerous it is for her to pass through the surface of a mirror. She could be trapped for who knows how long.’
Dotty couldn’t take it any more, and she ran sobbing towards the back of the house.
‘How terrible for poor Daisy,’ said Aunt Eliza drily.
‘This is serious, Eliza. It’s unconscionable behaviour.’
‘Sorry, Uncle,’ said Mirabelle, bowing her head.
‘We’ll have to get her out of there,’ said Enoch, looking into the mirror.
‘How, pray tell?’ asked Eliza.
‘Odd will help,’ said Enoch.
‘He may be busy. We might not want to disturb him,’ said Eliza.
‘That’s right. He has a lot to do,’ said Mirabelle.
Enoch held the mirror at arm’s length as if appraising himself in the same way Eliza so often liked to. He seemed to consider what they were saying.
‘You know, it might not be that urgent,’ he said, looking a little distracted. Daisy was mouthing the words ‘Help me’ at him. Enoch cleared his throat and then tugged at his collar with one hand as if remembering his place. ‘But this is very serious, Mirabelle.’
Mirabelle clasped her hands in front of her and nodded. She looked penitent, but Jem had spent enough time with Tom to know when somebody was pretending to be sorry.
‘This cannot go unpunished. And Odd will be found and will correct this.’ Enoch looked again at the mirror. ‘Soon,’ he said, a little too hesitantly.
Jem saw Mirabelle and Eliza share a look of amusement. Enoch turned a withering glance on her.
‘This is family business. Perhaps you’d like to retire outside for a little while.’
Jem knew an order when she heard one, but found she couldn’t leave, not like this, not when Mirabelle needed someone to stand up for her. She had sympathy for her in her dealings with the twins, despite the rather unnerving end result. She felt the overpowering need to say something. She turned to look at Enoch.
‘She was only sticking up for me and Freddie.’
Enoch looked momentarily taken aback, as if he were offended that she’d had the temerity to speak to him. Eliza looked impressed with her intervention.
‘That’s all she